I learned a lot working side by side an engineering leader who built Google Docs (I hired him in as our VPE). He taught me the importance of two types of author

I learned a lot working side by side an engineering leader who built Google Docs (I hired him in as our VPE). He taught me the importance of two types of authority: positional (org hierarchy) and personal (technical, market understanding, tribal knowledge/relationships, etc.). The best managers have both. The worst have only positional and flex it constantly. The mediocre have positional but rarely flex and rely on their teams. Regardless, there always needs to be both types of authority so the ultimate accountability of performance to a goal can cleanly bubble up. As goals become broader, it's unfair to pin the accountability on one individual without putting them in a position of positional authority so they can then give smaller authority (and responsibility) to the individual team members. Source: I have managed and scaled teams up to 100+ people. I've served both engineering (Head of Eng, CTO) and HR leadership (VP People) roles.